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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24134710">Face to face</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kithas/pseuds/Kithas'>Kithas</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Demon Children Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ava's Demon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Death, Gen, This wasn't so much about the king's individual death as it's about it's army's decay, because both of them are invaders, i wanted to make a point between King Locust and TITAN, just very different</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:20:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,445</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24134710</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kithas/pseuds/Kithas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>... But, at the moment of truth, an invasion is an invasion. And TITAN, what is TITAN? It is a religion. It's a company. It's a brad. It's a way of life.<br/>"You tried to conquer them by being their enemy. I did conquer them by making myself their friend".</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Demon Children Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726867</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Face to face</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>- The galaxy is a big and scary one. Up there, around the stars, lay worlds whose surface has never been touched by any intelligent life. Civilizations so expansive they span entire galaxies. Gas clouds so big, they could feed an entire fleet or be used to detonate the biggest bomb in existence. Cities so vast, they lay around entire planets, and that's not counting the metropolitan area.Intellects so powerful that could answer the oldest questions. And illnesses so fearful that we would never think asking again. World after world. City after city. Country after country. They feed. They grow. They replicate. The arthropod looking monsters hijacked entire systems by the mere fact that each one of the inhabitants of those systems belonged to their race. Not by birth, but by metamorphosis. What would you do, if you were called Gregor Samsa and you realized, one morning, that your nightmare was real? What woud you do if all your loved ones looked at you with compound eyes, and yo felt teh hunger in their articulate jaws? If yo realized you could just extend your elytra and be a part of the swarm? There were some that looked upon it with adoration. Becoming a part of something greater. A part of something better. There were cults with that dreadful Locust Army as a goal. It was, simultaneously, Galaxy Security Threat number one, and adoration subject number one.</p><p><br/>But, as one of the biggest illnesses known by the galaxy, it also attracted attention from one of the biggest intellects in the galaxy. That was what one could see aboard the Oberonia, one of the mobile autonomous HQ that TITAN inc. had around the galaxy. The followers, who should have been tending to their own tasks, were doing... Exactly that, all of them except a few chosen high ranks who were crowded around the observation screen who showed them what happen inside the Isolation Chamber. There was nothing that could go out an Isolation Chamber. Polar opposite to the new Paradise Chamber, there was no insect, no bacteria or not even a particle that could abandon that chamber without permission. That's why they had used it to contain exactly two beings. One of them, a single specimen of the Locust Army, not different by sight from all the other insectoids, but, by their power readings, just the one they were looking for. The other one in that chamber was TITAN himself.</p><p><br/>The head of the corporation had shrunken himself just so he could talk freely to his adversary inside the chamber, but his blue armor seemed to emit such light that it would have been difficult to look at him directly. Nevertheless, he knew the locust was alert. - <span class="u">AN UNKNOWN BEING, APPEARING SOMEWHERE AROUND THE OUTER RIM</span>. - The booming voice was deafening. All those effects, usually served to make any opposing individual aware of who they were dealing with. TITAN was a god. Or, at least, he made himself look like one. - <span class="u">AN ENEMY THAT REACHED NOT FOR OUR WEAPONRY, NOT FOR OUR TECH, BUT FOR OUR PEOPLE.</span> -  TITAN's eye was fixated on the insect. - <span class="u">MANY CALLED YOU AN ILLNESS. MANY CALLED YOU THE ANSWER</span>. <br/> - I am but the hunger of the wolds. - King Locust said, not an inch of fear in his being. Bugs didn't know fear. Unfortunately. - The plague that will devour the civilization and take the universe away from their individuality. They say you're the most powerful force in existence. They say your corporation rules the universe. And you say you can kill me. You can't . <br/> -<span class="u"> I WON'T KILL YOU. YOU DID, JUST BEFORE MY ARMY CAUGHT YOU, DRINKING A VIAL OF POISON. THAT IS BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU DON'T NEED YOURSELF, THAT THE LOCUST ARMY IS A PLAGUE THAT WILL SPREAD AROUND EVEN WITHOUT ITS HEAD MASTER. ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN YOU YOUR MISTAKE.</span> - TITAN turned around the chamber. It didn't have much. A desk, a simple bed, something akin to a bathroom in one of the corners... It didn't need much. King LuGeap Locust had already poisoned himself, believing his invasion to be already a sure success, and trying the chance to infect some high-ranks from the HQ before dying. He thought he was replaceable. But he wasn't. - <span class="u">YOUR INTENT WAS RIGHT, BUT YOUR AIM WAS WRONG. TOO LOW, TOO</span> <span class="u">LATE</span>. - TITAN instructed. -<span class="u"> YOU TRIED TO CONQUER THE WORLD BY CONQUERING ITS INHABITANT'S BODIES, I DID CONQUER THEIR SOULS. YOU THINK WE'RE RACING FOR THE UNIVERSE'S DOMAIN, BUT YOU'RE WRONG</span>. - It was never a race. They weren't even playing the same game. - <span class="u">THE PROBLEM WITH THE PEOPLE LIKE YOU, IS THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ONLY ONE, WHILE WE ARE MANY.</span> - TITAN raised a hand, and a screen appeared from the wall. An advertisement was playing. TITAN brand Tennis. TITAN brand sweets. TITAN brand music. TITAN brand medicines. TITAN brand weapons.</p><p><br/> - None of that will matter. - King LuGeap Locust didn't flinch. Or, at least, didn't show it to his foe. - When my army sweeps with your resources, with your food, your people will not think of you. They will only think about me. And, once they're mine, they will always be mine.<br/> - <span class="u"><em>WILL THEY?</em></span> - TITAN would have smiled, if he had a mouth. - <span class="u">YOU DID LET YOURSELF CAUGHT FOR THE CHANCE TO GET INSIDE ANY ONE OF US. BUT NOW IT IS US, WHO HAVE FOUND THE WAY TO GET  INSIDE OF YOU.</span> - He took King LuGeap's arm, and raised it. - <span class="u">AS WE SPEAK, YOUR SAMPLES ARE BEING COMPUTERIZED. ANALYZED. AND SEND ALL AROUND THE UNIVERSE, SHARED WITH A VARIETY OF NETS. IN WHAT AMOUNT TO HOURS, AN ANTIBODY WILL BE CREATED. A CURE WILL BE SYNTHESIZED. AND THEN, YOU, AND ALL THE LOCUST ARMY, WILL BE NO MORE THAN AN ILLNESS OF THE PAST</span>.<br/>Now the King didn't have that aura of confidence anymore. - <span class="u">YOU SAY "KILL ME, ANOTHER ONE WILL REPLACE ME". BY THEN, I WILL HAVE FOUND OUT HOW TO KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU. BUT, IF YOU KILL ME... -</span>  TITAN took his own hand, and buried inside his own head, with a crashing sound and a shudder from the bug. Then, he took, from the remains of his head, what looked like his brain, or maybe his motherboard, and shattered it to pieces. The body fell to the ground, but the voice, or the aura of power didn't seem to notice. - <span class="u">AND YOU WILL HAVE TAUGHT ME ANOTHER WEAK POINT TO COVER.</span> - The screen changed from the nonstop ads, to the All-seeing Eye of TITAN. - <span class="u">YOUR MISTAKE WAS TRYING TO CONQUER THE WORLD WHILE MAKING YOU THEIR ENEMY, WHILE I DID IT, BY MAKING ME THEIR FRIEND.</span></p><p><br/>And then, with zero warning, the bomb that was inside the remains of TITAN's proxy body exploded, vaporizing both individuals, and completely ending the main threat. Now the only thing left to do, was to deal with the other ones. After getting sure the isolation chamber didn't have any remaining biological hazards inside worth worrying about, Strategos Six switched off the screen and looked around. - Now, it has been a success. I don't know wheter this Episcopi Eight's theory of coming back is true or not, surely we haven't seen more of the Bellarmina worm in some time, but in any case, the Locust Army won't be a threat again. Righ't, Episcopi?<br/> - The cure is on it's way. We've found how the illness did change the subject's body, and how its mind was infected too. It would have been interesting to use the cure in King Locust himself, as to test the "Patient Zero" hypothesis, but...<br/> - TITAN had his reasons. - His second in charge turned to other. - Your engineers will do good in preparing multiple alternatives. I'm still not sure if there could be different strains. How about the victims?<br/> - The infected planets have been either sterilized or isolated, cutting down all traffic to and from them, with any ship exiting the planets being completely shot down. As he bugs targeted many of our barn systems, it will cause a little bit of food shortage, but that simply means we will have to change the food provider for now. Our followers are waiting for the cure to be completely developed.<br/>Strategos Six looked around, to some of the best and most high-ranked and dedicated followers of TITAN, and almost smiled under the mask. Not because they were the best of the best (They were) but because each one of them, was completely replaceable. Even if King LuGeap had managed to infect or destroy any one of them, it wouldn't have made a scratch in their efforts to stop him. TITAN was right.</p>
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